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Japanese theater has gained a great deal of international recognition, so most people are likely familiar with kabuki or noh. Fewer, however, may have heard of Ryūkyū buyō — the traditional dance of Okinawa. On July 29 at Kioi Hall in Tokyo’s Chiyoda Ward, ...

Tokyo’s night-life area of Roppongi is probably one of the last places you would expect to find people exercising early in the morning, but on weekends from July 26 to Aug. 10, the Roppongi Hills shopping complex welcomes anyone, whether they are hungover or ...

Japan is a paradise for pampered pets. There are dog manicure salons, dog spas, cat gourmet treats and many other ways to treat your furry friends. A trip to the nearest park will reveal plenty of owners walking dogs who are quite often dressed ...

Sakaiminato in Tottori Prefecture is a city that is ideal for tourists. It’s one of the biggest fishing towns in Japan, and as the hometown of Mizuki Shigeru, author of the yōkai (Japanese folklore monsters and ghouls) manga series “GeGeGe no Kitaro,” it’s known ...

Takahito Motegi, chief human-resource officer of BOLBOP Inc., is a former participant in the Nitobe Kokusai Juku public lectures. He established an association called Machi no Hokori (Pride of Community) after a Nitobe Kokusai Juku field study visit to Otsuchi in Iwate Prefecture following ...

Legend has it that the first Hakata ningyō (handmade clay Japanese clay figurines) were created to be presented to Kuroda Nagamasa, the then newly appointed feudal lord who served under Tokugawa Ieyasu during the Edo Period (1603-1868). Like Hakata dolls, the stories behind hand-crafted ...

This summer, TV Asahi and Roppongi Hills are working together to get you off the sofa and into the sun while still enjoying some of your favorite television programs. This is the collaboration’s first grand-scale event, which is aimed at all ages and features ...

When Monkey D. Luffy of the manga and anime “One Piece” screams out “I’m going to be a pirate king,” does it ever make you think to yourself, “I want to be a pirate king too”? Well now’s your chance. With more than 300 ...

What happened to the grand days of space exploration? It was only a few decades ago when Neil Armstrong took his first step on the moon and solemnly stated: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” But the dreams of ...

Using the toilet is an everyday part of our lives, yet it’s something we rarely talk about in public. But it is of such importance, involving health, sanitation and human dignity, that perhaps it should become a topic of general discussion. So why not ...

It’s hard to imagine, but millions of years ago elephants roamed Japan. Although they died out long before civilization, Tokyo’s National Museum of Nature and Science can help us imagine these majestic creatures and other prehistoric mammals through a display of Japan-specific fossils. The ...

If giant robots excite you, then you will know Gundam — a name that has become synonymous with the sci-fi mecha genre. “Mobile Suit Gundam” premiered on TV in 1979, and since then has been adapted into countless sequels and spinoffs. It remains popular ...